Remarks by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the 14th Singapore-Australia Joint Ministerial Committee Joint Press Conference at Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Let me thank Deputy Prime Minister Marles for those kind words. For our bilateral defence relationship between Australia and Singapore, I should begin by acknowledging that Australia has been one of our staunchest and long-standing defence partners. Their investments in our ability to defend ourselves, as well as in stability of the region go way back – very soon after our independence in 1965 – with the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) in 1971, for which we commemorate 53 years this year.

The FPDA conducts an annual exercise, and it has been growing in scale as well as complexity. To reflect Australia's commitment, for the first time, this year, they included six F-35s for the exercise. And next year, the Carrier Strike Group, which will be visiting the region, may also be involved. Deputy Prime Minister Marles mentioned that our fixed wing pilots are trained in Australia.

For Shoalwater Bay Training Area, which many NSmen are familiar with, next year will be the 35th year of [our training at] Shoalwater Bay Training Area. Every year, thousands of SAF soldiers have their formative experiences in Australia.

The other milestone was “CSP 1.0”, as Deputy Prime Minister Marles said, now nearly ten years, [it has] transformed our relationship, and deepened it further. It gave us the confidence, because it was very successful, to aim high for “CSP 2.0”, to deepen bilateral relations. Our officials have been meeting and as Deputy Prime Minister Marles said, we met as a delegation this morning. We hope that over the next few months we will finalise the details. If the defence relationship outlined by “CSP 2.0” is realised, it will result for Singapore that Australia will be one of your closest and most valuable defence partners, and hopefully us to them. So let me thank them for their support over the years and I look forward to that agreement.

Reuters: Good afternoon, Ministers. I am Xinhui from Reuters. My question is for both Defence Ministers. I think earlier on, you said that you are looking to increase access to both defence facilities, right? Can I get a sense of what sort of increase in access? And I think even right now, which are some Singapore defence facilities that Australia is using?

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen: I understand your question, so let me help by letting you in on a state secret: Singapore is small, and Australia is large. But it is our strategic trust that allows us to use each other's geographic advantages. You can list, or you can find on record how we use the facilities and how they use ours, these are not state secrets, but over the last seven decades, since FPDA and our founding, Australia's presence has added to regional stability. So, from our perspective, since we are small and “CSP 1.0” has worked very well with the development of Shoalwater Bay Training Area, how do we increase training opportunities for our soldiers, our airmen, and our Navy? That is what we have been discussing. From Australia's perspective, they see regional stability as integral to their national stability. And it makes sense - if the supply chains are choked here, Australia suffers. How can they add to the regional stability? And how can Singapore accommodate more ships and planes through our naval bases and air bases? So, it is no secret, and I think we can come up with something which is mutually beneficial.

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